Kiss Me Too
by Cress
Summary: Joey:Chandler slash, set after Joey's birthday party. Formerly called Birthday Kisses, but renamed to avoid confusion with a new story.
1. This Tribbiani

**This Joey/Chandler slash occurs after episode 311, The One Where Chandler Can't Remember Which Sister. Joey finds out that Chandler didn't just kiss Joey's sister at the birthday party. What if Joey feels a little left out?**

* * *

As yet another evening with their friends drew to a close, Joey and Chandler said goodnight to the others, then returned to their apartment together. Chandler's black eye still bothered him a little, and Joey noticed his wincing.

"You okay, man?"

Chandler nodded. "Yeah. I still can't believe you had your sister Cookie punch me."

"Well I can't believe you couldn't take a punch from a girl."

"Hey, she was no ordinary girl! Cookie is tough!"

"Yeah!" Joey agreed, laughing a little. "I'm sorry, but it had to be done, man. You can't just fool around with my sister Mary Angela and then not remember who she is!"

"Yeah, I know. I'm still sorry about that, by the way."

"It's okay, I'll get over it. You got over Ross kissing your mom."

"Yep, but not without inflicting some pain on Ross!" Chandler laughed at the memory, and at the irony in the current situation.

Joey smiled, and pat his shoulder. "Look, Chandler, you just tell me next time you're that depressed; we'll go out to a strip joint or something."

"Yeah, thanks Joe."

Thinking over the recent birthday party, Joey started cracking up suddenly. "Man, how drunk were you? You kissed Monica too! And Rachel! And Ross!" He laughed hysterically, almost doubling over.

Chandler sighed and wished that the others hadn't told Joey all that. "I was _really_ drunk, okay? I did not know what I was doing."

"It sounds like the only person you didn't make out with was me!" Joey thought about it a bit, then frowned. "Hey, why not me?"

"Are you kidding me?"

"It was _my_ birthday party. I'm just saying, if it had to be any Tribbiani, why not _this_ Tribbiani?"

"Joey!"

"Do you have something against kissing me? Am I not good enough for you? You know, when I had to kiss a man for that audition, you wouldn't let me kiss you then, either!"

"First of all, I'm not gay. Second, I was in love with that internet chick who turned out to be Janice. Third, I'm not gay!"

"I'm not saying you're gay! But if you're drunk enough to kiss Ross, you oughta be drunk enough to kiss me too!"

"Joey! Arrghh!" How could he argue with this?

Joey beckoned him closer. "Come on, kiss me now."

"What? No way!" Chandler backed up anxiously.

Joey cornered him against the kitchen counter. "I mean it. Just prove to me that you don't have something against me."

"No!"

"Look, Ross kissed me when I had that audition, and you kissed Ross at my party, so it's practically like we've already kissed. No big deal."

"No big deal?"

"Yeah! Ross should be the one worried about his reputation." He chuckled, then recalled another incident. "Hey, you and me did kiss before, at that New Year's Eve party, remember? You were begging for somebody to kiss you at midnight, and I did, as a favor to you. So you can at least kiss me back now."

"For the last time, no!"

Joey scowled, getting angry. "Hey, do you want me to forgive you for kissing my sister or not?"

"I thought we settled that with the punch!"

"That was for kissing Mary Angela. You kissed Mary Therese too!"

Chandler groaned and gave up. "Fine, but be careful about-" he gestured to his black eye.

Joey nodded and came nearer. Chandler closed his eyes and tensed up considerably when their lips met, but Joey did not let up and actually turned it into a prolonged, passionate kiss. He finally pulled away, and suddenly they were both nervous now.

Chandler swallowed and blinked uncomfortably. "You, uh, you slipped me some tongue, there, Joe."

"Your tongue wasn't exactly doing nothing, either."

Chandler coughed and fidgeted. "Let's, uh, let's not speak of this again."

Joey nodded. "Yeah, um, well I gotta go to bed now. See ya." He disappeared into his room, even though it was only nine o'clock.


	2. After the Kiss

Left alone, Chandler quickly put some porn into the VCR and sat down to watch it, to reassure himself that he was straight.  
  
Joey heard the TV going, and almost came out of his room to join Chandler, before he realized that it would be better to stay inside. So he reluctantly tried to go to sleep, but when that didn't work, Joey just listened to the familiar sounds of the porn.  
  
After a while, Joey realized that he was jerking off and still thinking about Chandler. "Whoa!" he said suddenly and pulled his hand away. He then worried that Chandler might have heard him, but since Chandler didn't say anything, or come to the door, Joey stopped panicking so much.  
  
But the embarrassing thing was that Joey remained aroused. What was he thinking, kissing Chandler like that? That kiss was so... Whoa! There he was, thinking about Chandler again.  
  
Joey got up and started to dress, deciding that he needed to go out and find a woman to sleep with. Yeah, that would definitely take Chandler off his mind.  
  
So Joey opened his door and squeezed around the entertainment center, but walked in on Chandler with his hand down his own pants.  
  
"Joey!" Chandler pulled his hand away and nervously covered himself up.  
  
"It's--it's okay," Joey answered quickly. "You had the porn on. You thought you were alone."  
  
"Yeah, um, yeah." He blushed deeply all the same.  
  
Joey pointed toward the apartment door. "Well, I'm--I'm going out now. Don't wait up."  
  
"Why would I wait up? I don't care when you come home--" He shut up when he saw Joey's look. "Right, um, see ya in the morning."  
  
"See ya." Joey then headed to the door and put on his coat. "And I'm sorry for startling you there. I thought I was going to bed, but um--" He gave up on it and just left.  
  
Chandler turned off the porn when he realized that it wasn't really helping him. Then he went to bed, yet found himself still aroused, and still thinking about Joey's kiss. If only there were some girl around that could set him right again! If only Janice were still with him, and not with her husband Gary, the Mattress King.  
  
Thinking about Janice helped a little, although it made Chandler sad about their breakup. At least he was finally able to get to sleep. 


	3. Desperate Measures

Joey shook Chandler awake while it was still dark out.

Chandler jumped away from his touch. "Wh-wh-what do you want from me now? Sex?"

Joey blushed and stammered, "You-you were dreaming, um, loudly. You... said my name."

"Oh my God!" Chandler suddenly recalled his dream and looked horrified. "You're right, I was. I was dreaming about you. Oh my God, what's wrong with me?"

Joey sat back and shook his head guiltily. "It's my fault. I shouldn't have kissed you like that."

Chandler waved his words away. "Don't-don't talk about it!" He turned to the clock by his bed. "What are you doing back so soon? Didn't you go out and, um, get a girl?"

"Yeah, but-" Joey averted his eyes and blushed much more deeply than before. "I had, um, some trouble. I, um, couldn't-well I could, technically, but I kept thinking about, um..."

"Don't-don't continue. I get the idea."

"So I couldn't stay there, and I went home. But then I heard you in here, and I got kinda nuts and had to wake you, you know?"

"I know." Chandler swallowed and searched frantically in his mind for some solution to their mutual problem.

Joey found the silence too much to bear, so he got up to leave. But before he opened the door, Chandler spoke up with a desperate, strained voice.

"Is that it? Is that it? Should we just sleep together?"

"What?" Joey stared at him in shock. "Sleep together?"

"Think about it," Chandler insisted. "We've tried everything else. If we do it, or start to, we'll realize how disgusting it is, and then we'll be cured. I think. I mean, of course we will!"

Joey hesitated. "You really want to?"

"No, I don't want to!" he shouted back, then shuddered. "But I don't want to keep dreaming about it, either. Now are you gonna sleep with me or not!"

"Okay, okay!" Joey came back to the bed and started undressing.

Although it had been his own suggestion, Chandler watched him with wide eyes and couldn't quite believe it. Joey was getting naked. Now Joey was getting into bed with him and pulling off his pajamas too.

"Whoa!" Joey commented. "You're hard already."

"Uh-huh." Chandler couldn't form any other sounds at present.

Joey started kissing him, giving both their tongues quite a workout, and they sank together onto the bed.

Chandler suddenly winced and pulled away a little.

Joey looked anxious and concerned. "What? Huh? Are we stopping now?"

"Um..." Chandler blinked and remembered that they were only doing this to cure themselves of the nagging desire. He tried to speak casually, "Sure. Don't you wanna stop yet?"

"Well, um," Joey admitted in a whisper, "I-I don't think I'm cured yet. It's, uh, it's not disgusting yet for me."

"Okay, then let's continue."

"Okay." Joey pounced on him again.

"Ow, my eye!" he winced anew.

"Sorry, sorry! I forgot." Joey quickly soothed Chandler and became more careful of his caresses and kisses. He teased Chandler's third nipple and discovered that it _could_ do interesting things, with the proper stimulation. Soon they both got lost in the passion, groping each other and rolling in the sheets eagerly.

Joey sighed breathlessly when they stopped, satiated. "That was good. Surprisingly good."

"Yeah," Chandler agreed, but then realized something and got nervous. "Um, weren't we supposed to stop sometime? I mean, before we... you know?"

"I guess," Joey shrugged. "You didn't stop me."

Chandler blushed and swallowed. "I, uh, I was waiting for you to be disgusted."

"Oh." Joey cleared his throat. "I wasn't. Disgusted, I mean."

"Me neither."

They contemplated that in awkward silence.

Joey got up finally, and grabbed his clothes. "Well, um, good night."

"Good night." Chandler couldn't help but watch Joey dress. He had a nice body.

So Joey left, and Chandler lay tensely awake, wondering what all this meant. Why did he ever suggest having sex together? Did this mean he was gay? What about all the women he'd ever slept with? What about Janice, whom he'd actually been in love with?

Moreover, what about Joey? Why did he pressure Chandler for a kiss in the first place? Joey slept with tons more women than Chandler did. How could this happen? More importantly, would it ever happen again? Did he want it to?

Wrestling with all these difficult questions exhausted him, so Chandler finally fell asleep.


	4. Consequences

**This chapter refers to an unusual date that Joey once had, and which he told the others about in episode 203, The One Where Heckles Dies. It also refers to Susie Moss's underwear prank on Chandler in episode 213, The One After the Superbowl, Part II.**

* * *

Joey lay in his own bed that night and remembered that years ago he had dated a woman, or at least someone he thought was a woman, with a big Adam's apple. Joey had broken up with her because her Adam's apple bothered him so much, but he still found her hot and very kissable. When Joey told his friends this story later on, the guys had told him pointedly that women don't have Adam's apples. Maybe they were right, and "she" had not been a she.

How blind could he have been? Was he really that dumb? Or maybe it was self denial? He didn't know how to handle being turned on by someone so unexpected.

Then there was the fact that Joey always pictured Chandler's hot mother Nora Tyler Bing whenever he had sex. Though it bothered Chandler, Joey had long considered this an innocent fantasy. Yet, how big a leap was it from picturing Chandler's mom to picturing Chandler himself?

Apparently not that big a leap. When Joey had tried to sleep with that girl Jessie tonight, his thoughts kept straying to Chandler again and again. He even pictured Chandler wearing that hot pink g-string, from back when Susie Moss stole all Chandler's clothes and left him trapped in the bathroom of a fancy restaurant.

"Hey, where you going?" Jessie looked confused when Joey suddenly left her bed.

"Um, I can't do this. I gotta go."

"What?" She stopped him as he tried to get dressed. "Come on, you've got a reputation for never failing." She ran her hand along his erection again. "And you look ready to me."

"Hey!" He jerked away from her touch. "No, uh, it's not that."

"Then what's the matter, Joey?"

"I, uh, I remembered that I have to go home now, that's all. Big audition in the morning."

"Well, I can't send you home like _this_," she tried to grab him again, but he dodged her.

"No, no! I don't have time!" Joey quickly covered himself up and hurried out her door, knowing that Jessie would probably badmouth him all over town, and he'd probably have no luck with women for a while at least.

It would probably serve him right, anyway. Although Joey was long out of high school, and nearing thirty, he still viewed his dates not so much as real people, but as conquests that proved how hot and macho he was. Sure, he knew he would have to treat women better and settle down someday, as his family urged, but so far he preferred continuing in this shallow, self-centered vein.

Joey sighed and remembered the dream that he had heard Chandler having about him earlier, a dream which had now become reality. They had actually slept together, and liked it. More than that, Chandler wasn't just some forgettable one-night stand; he was a real person, and Joey's best friend. So how in the world would Joey face him in the morning?


	5. The Morning After

**At long last, the ending to Birthday Kisses. Sorry if it seems a little rushed, but I don't have much time.**

* * *

"Hey!" Ross called out when he came over the next morning to the guys' apartment. "Hey, are you guys still in bed?" He came and knocked on Chandler's door, but before he could get around the entertainment center to knock on Joey's too, it opened and Joey stood there, wearing his bathrobe and looking nervous.

"I'm up! I'm up!" He slid around the entertainment center. "I, uh, I need to go shower."

"Okay, I'll wait. I wanna talk to you and Chandler some more about this Mark guy."

"Yeah, sure!" He hurried into the bathroom and shut the door.

Ross went to the kitchen and poured some juice for himself.

Chandler soon opened his door too and emerged dressed in his own robe. "Morning."

"Morning!" Ross glanced at his watch. "Did you guys have a late night?"

Chandler jumped a little at that remark. "Wh-what makes you think that?"

Ross shrugged. "You're not ready for work yet, and you look as sleepy as Joey."

"I'm fine! I'm fine! I just didn't get a lot of sleep."

Ross looked at him, and then nodded knowingly. "Oh, I see! Joey had some company over, and they made a lot of noise, huh?" Then he peered toward Joey's door, which had been left slightly ajar. "Is she still in there?" Ross whispered. "Am I waking her up?"

"No, uh, she went home already. So, you-you said something about Mark?"

Ross nodded. "Yeah, I'm positive that he's still after Rachel, and I got to find some way to stop him. I could really use some advice."

"Why? Because my luck with women is that great? Or Joey's so good at holding onto a girlfriend for longer than a day?"

"Well, at least neither of you married a lesbian. Come on, I need some guy perspective."

Chandler shrugged, and felt pretty insecure about himself as a guy right now.

"Sounds like Joey's done with the shower. Your turn soon."

"Uh-huh," Chandler nodded absently.

"You feeling all right, Chandler? You look pale. Except for the black eye, that is."

Chandler didn't laugh. Instead he shrugged and picked up the phone. "As a matter of fact, I'm not going into work today."

"Really?"

Chandler shushed Ross and then called in sick to work.

Meanwhile, Joey came out of the shower in his robe and heard him on the phone. When Chandler hung up, Joey asked worriedly, "You okay?"

Chandler avoided his eyes. "Just waiting for the shower." He quickly passed Joey and slipped into the bathroom.

Joey asked Ross, "Is he okay?"

"I think so. He didn't get any sleep with all the noise you made."

"Noise?"

"Yeah, you and your girl with the bedroom antics."

"Oh," Joey realized what Chandler had told him. "Oh, right!" He cleared his throat. "Yeah, I gotta apologize to Chandler about that. Um, I'm gonna go get dressed now."

Ross smiled. "Yeah, I was wondering how long you were going stand there dripping all over the carpet!" After finishing his glass of juice, Ross glanced at his watch again and noticed the time. "Hey, you know what?" he called to Joey through his bedroom door. "I'm gonna be late for the museum. Tell Chandler I'll catch you guys later about that Mark thing."

"Okay."

"Bye!"

"Bye!"

Joey was relieved that Ross had gone, but was not entirely sure what he should say to Chandler once he emerged from the bathroom. So Joey just finished dressing and then waited on one of the stools in the living room.

Chandler finally exited and immediately averted his eyes from Joey. "Be right with you, Ross."

"Uh, Ross left for work already. He says he'll talk to us later."

"Oh, okay." Chandler continued into his bedroom to dress.

Joey waited for him in silence.

After a while, Chandler spoke from behind his bedroom door. "Uh, Joey?" He sounded nervous.

"Yeah?"

"You don't have any auditions to go to today?"

"No." Joey walked over to the closed door. "You're staying home too?"

"Um, yeah." There was no use in denying it. "Just so I don't have to explain the puffy eye, you know."

"Sure, sure." Joey nodded, feeling somewhat relieved. "I thought maybe you weren't feeling well or something."

Chandler didn't reply.

"How-how's that eye doin', by the way?" Joey asked awkwardly. "I didn't, um, make it any worse last night, did I? 'Cause you know, I'd never want to hurt you, in any way, ever. I-"

"Joey," he interrupted. "Can we, can we not talk about last night? Let's-let's just pretend it never happened."

Joey inhaled sharply and felt the unfamiliar sting of rejection. He was hardly comfortable with the thought of last night, either, but he wanted to at least clear the air and talk about it. Yet all Chandler wanted was denial, apparently.

"Wait, no! Please, just listen to me, will ya? I need to tell you, um, um-Chandler!" Speaking to a door was just too difficult.

Chandler opened the door cautiously, and whispered, "Okay, let's talk." He re-entered the living room and sat down on one end of their couch, but still avoided Joey's eyes.

Joey perched at the opposite end and cleared his throat nervously. "Good. Good, let's talk."

Chandler said nothing and kept staring at the floor.

So Joey struggled on. "Um, um, I wanna-I wanna apologize for, you know, starting everything last night. And not stopping it."

"Apology accepted," Chandler answered stiffly.

"Can't you even look at me?" Joey was hurt. "You're my best friend, Chandler, and I don't want last night to change anything between us. I never want to lose your friendship. Never! Are we-are we gonna be all right here?"

"Yeah," Chandler shrugged, trying to be calm. "Yeah, of course we are. It's just, the memory's so fresh right now, that I gotta not look at you right now."

"Okay." Joey remained sad, but tried to focus on the hope that things would go back to normal eventually. He cleared his throat again. "So... you told Ross I had a girl over, huh?"

Chandler nodded. "Yeah. I said I didn't get any sleep."

"Right, right. That's smart! Plus, you know, that can be our excuse if we act strange or something when everybody else is around. You're just mad at me, and I feel guilty."

"Yeah."

Joey stood up. "Okay, I'm-I'm gonna get some breakfast, and maybe you wanna turn on the TV."

"Yeah." Chandler moved to his leather recliner and switched on the TV.

Joey went to the kitchen and got some eggs and butter from the fridge. "I'm making eggs. You want some?"

"Sure." He didn't turn around.

Joey cooked the eggs and toasted the bagels the way that Chandler liked them. Then he served the breakfast and they ate in silence.

The eggs reminded Joey of the time when he had moved out and that crazy Eddie had moved in; Joey had jealously accused of Chandler liking Eddie's eggs better than his eggs. How crazy was that? *Almost as crazy as kissing him and sleeping with him!* Joey scolded himself.


	6. A New Approach

The rest of the day remained tense between Joey and Chandler; they met the others at the coffeehouse and at Monica's apartment as usual, but found it difficult to make conversation. Ross took them both aside to discuss his continued worries about Rachel's attractive co-worker Mark, but soon realized that they weren't listening.

"Hello? Focus here!"

Joey and Chandler each mumbled apologies and made excuses about still being sleepy.

Ross noticed their lack of eye contact with each other. "Chandler, are you still mad about Joey keeping you up last night? Come on, get over it, man! If you're mad, why don't you bring home your own date and keep Joey from getting to sleep?"

Chandler looked horrified. "No, I'm-I'm not in the mood for sex right now."

"Not in the mood? Come on! You need to get over Janice-preferably not by making out with Joey's sisters again."

He scowled at Ross for bringing that up.

"Come on! Me and Joey will take you out to the strip clubs tonight. Won't we, Joe?"

"No!" Chandler refused firmly.

"Yeah, let's-let's just leave him alone," Joey chimed in.

Ross looked at both of them with irritation.

Joey swallowed and hoped that nobody could see how Ross's suggestion had filled him with a wave of jealousy. Just like with the eggs, he didn't want Chandler to have sex with somebody else, woman or man, and like it better than he liked sex with Joey. He knew it was crazy to feel so possessive, but he couldn't help it somehow.

* * *

That night when Joey and Chandler returned to their apartment, they were intensely aware of being alone again.

"Um, well, I gotta go hit the sack now," Chandler said.

"Wait, wait, don't go to bed yet!" Joey pleaded.

Chandler stopped in his tracks, but hesitated to turn around. "What, Joey?"

"You _know_ what! Come on, look at me, please? I want-I want us to talk again and be like normal. This weirdness is just driving me crazy!"

"It's not exactly a picnic for me, Joe, but I can't just go back to normal like that." He snapped his fingers.

"Why not? You were the one who said that we should pretend like nothing ever happened."

"Well it's easier said than done, okay?"

"So, so what do we do, then? How do we move past this?"

"I don't know!" He gave a frustrated groan. "It would be a whole lot easier if I could just forget, you know? Get all these, these memories out of my head."

"Well I guess we should think about all the times that we didn't have sex. Like last week. Or like..."

Chandler shook his head and interrupted. "Look, maybe, maybe this is the wrong approach we're taking. Maybe we need some distance from each other. Like, one of us should move out of here, or maybe both of us should start fresh in new places."

"What?" Joey viewed that suggestion with horror. "No! No way! Remember how awful it was when I moved out last year and you had that freak Eddie move in? Nobody should move. We should just, we should stay and work this out somehow. Come on, Chandler, you're my best friend. Don't throw us away."

"You should've thought about that before you crossed the line with me!"

"Hey, you were the one who said we should sleep together!"

"I said we should start to! I said we should be disgusted! Damn it, why weren't you disgusted?"

"I don't know! I-" He threw the question back. "Why weren't you? Huh? If you ask me, you liked every minute of it. You loved it."

"W-what about you? With your moaning and your 'Oh baby' and your slipping me the tongue on that first kiss. Why did you ever have to kiss me, anyway? First it was New Year's and now last night. You-you can't keep your lips to yourself!" he accused.

"You didn't want me to keep them to myself! You were the one begging for a kiss at midnight."

"I wasn't asking you!"

"Oh yeah? Why'd you get drunk at my birthday party and kiss everybody, including Ross?"

"I was depressed about Janice."

Joey scoffed. "You know why you hit on my sisters, and all our friends? 'Cause you wanted the next best thing to me!"

"No I didn't!"

"Yeah you did! And you know something else? You-you-" Joey was so angry that he could hardly find words. "You're just a... a pathetic, lonely, _not_ funny..."

That particular insult stung Chandler, and Joey could see the hurt on his face, which affected him more than he thought it would. Suddenly it didn't seem right anymore to call him a loser and tell him that he would die all alone just like Mr. Heckles.

Joey stared at Chandler and felt pangs of friendship and warmth and desire. Unable to hold back, he suddenly came over and pulled Chandler into his arms, kissing him long and hard.

Chandler did not fight him off at all, and just melted into the kiss. He met Joey's eyes at last and whispered, "Let's-let's do it again."

Joey nodded and took his breath away with another kiss, then they raced into Joey's bedroom together.


	7. Back In the Saddle

They had sex even more enthusiastically than the night before, and Joey's murmurs of "Oh baby," increased in both frequency and volume. They seemed to have lost all their self-control, as well as their clothes.

When they finished, there was a silence as they both lay back and caught their breaths. Joey watched Chandler in the darkness, then came nearer and gently spooned him.

Chandler closed his eyes with a sigh and caressed the arm that embraced him. "I, um," he confessed hesitantly, "I guess you were right. I didn't want just any Tribbiani at your birthday party."

Joey held him tighter and kissed the back of his neck. "I couldn't stop thinking about you today."

Chandler swallowed, then cautiously turned to face Joey. "So, does this mean, um...?" He shrugged and could not find the words.

Joey caressed his face and answered, "If you, if you want it to." He kissed Chandler's lips tenderly. "I mean, if you think this isn't a mistake." His eyes were hopeful and searching.

"I don't know. I don't know anything anymore. This is so-so beyond me." Chandler rested his head against Joey's shoulder and clung to him. "I just, um, I just know that I can't stop thinking about you either."

Joey smiled and dared to feel happy. "Then that's-that's all you need to know."

* * *

Late that night, after a bitter telephone argument with Ross about Mark, Rachel still felt like yelling, so she went across the hall to tell Joey and Chandler not to give any more advice to Ross.

"Hey!" she yelled as she banged on their entertainment center. "Hey, wake up! If I'm up all night arguing with Ross, then you're going to be up all night too!" Nobody answered her, so she furiously threw open Chandler's door, but found the room empty. Confused, she then went over and threw open Joey's door, which gave her quite a shock: Joey and Chandler were sleeping naked in the bed together.

Rachel shrieked, and they both woke up. When they saw her, they scrambled to cover themselves with the blankets, and Joey stammered, "Rach! Um, uh, we can explain..."

"You guys had sex!"

"Yeah, that's pretty much it," Chandler quipped.

"Oh my God, this is huge! I gotta tell Monica. Monica!" She ran back to her apartment.

Joey looked worried. "What should we do?"

Chandler shrugged. "Nothing. I mean," he pulled Joey closer, "we'd have to tell everybody eventually, wouldn't we?"

Joey hugged him back and watched his face. "You sure you're okay with this?"

Chandler nodded and kissed him.

Meanwhile, Rachel dragged a disbelieving Monica into the apartment, and pointed into Joey's bedroom. "I'm telling you, they're right there!"

Joey and Chandler stopped and waved at Monica with embarrassment. "Hi!"

Monica gaped at them, and finally responded sheepishly, "Hi."


	8. Friends With Benefits

Ross and Phoebe heard the big news in the morning, and everybody pestered the guys to explain how they ended up sleeping together.

"Well, you see," Chandler cleared his throat. "I, um, I wanted to give Joey a late birthday present," he joked. "You know, since I got drunk at the party and opened up all the presents for him."

Joey put his arm around Chandler and smiled. "And I just asked him for a kiss," he shrugged, "you know, since I couldn't get enough of him at New Year's."

The guys kissed and laughed easily about it now, because they had accepted that they wanted to keep sleeping together, and just realizing that was immensely freeing to them both.

The whole gang was happy for them, and Phoebe soon wrote a song called, "Naked Friends" which frequently embarrassed them when she played it at Central Perk.

With Joey and Chandler being the topic of conversation for quite a while, Ross stopped asking about Mark so much, and it certainly made life easier for Rachel. They got through the jealous phase of their relationship and celebrated their first anniversary happily.

Then Monica ran into Richard and started seeing him again, but insisted that they were only friends.

"Friends like me and Chandler?" Joey raised his eyebrows suggestively.

"No!" Despite her denials, Monica did get back together with Richard for a final fling, only to realize that they still wanted different things.

Phoebe also briefly reunited with her ex-singing partner and lover Leslie, only to be dumped again, when Leslie turned "Smelly Cat" into a jingle for kitty litter. After she recovered from her broken heart, Phoebe wound up getting together with her friend Bonnie, who was sexy, fun, and sometimes bald.

In the midst of all these couples, Monica felt more alone than ever, and even dated a millionaire named Pete that she wasn't attracted to at all. After that didn't work out, she threw herself into catering until she got hired as head chef for a restaurant. At least she was making progress in her career.

Then Monica finally met Don, an older British guy who loved cheese, Monica's cooking, and the idea of having kids.**

Finally, everybody was happy. Joey and Chandler were the best men at Ross and Rachel's wedding, and Phoebe and Monica were the bridesmaids.

The End

* * *

****Don is from episode 816, where Phoebe says he's Monica's soul mate (and Chandler isn't).**


End file.
